Senior civil servant Watt: Make it easier to sack underperforming public servants

A senior civil servant has said it should be easier to sack public servants who are not performing well enough.

Robert Watt, who runs the Department of Public Expenditure, said the public service has historically struggled to deal with underperformance and that needs to change.

Mr Watt said public workers in Britain can be sacked if they were not up to speed, and said poorer-performing staff in Ireland should be treated the same way.

He said: "If we see somebody who has not necessarily broken disciplinary procedures in some way, but is not performing as we would like, what I'm suggesting is whether we should consider an approach where we could have a conversation where we say we are going to buy out the remainder of (that person's) contract."